Cuz I Said Sew chronicles the adventures of a seamstress and her software engineer alter ego. Join them as they create spooky goth blouses, fun vintage-inspired dresses, and silly costumes.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

His & Hearse

This is another It Came from My Closet! post, as I am attending a wedding this weekend and working on a project for someone else.

It is no surprise that I, like most spooky types, dig hearses. I love them, quite frankly, and they hold a special place in my dark little heart. Ya see, when I met the now Mr Not Pixie, he drove a purple hearse. (I wish I could say it was love at first sight, but it wasn't. Not even close. But he grew on me.) Ever since I started sewing, I have been on the look out for hearse fabric. I had even pondered doing something like Spoonflower, but always shied away at the cost.

Then two summers ago, Robert Kaufman released Eerie Alley. Not just purple hearses, but lime green and orange ones too! On white and black! (And another with pink hearses on black, which I, of course, made into a different blouse.) "It must be mine! Immediately!" It was a designer release, and a new one at that, so this didn't come cheap, but I didn't care. For purple hearses, I would pay, and pay gladly! And so I did. (Even a designer fabric is cheaper than Spoonflower.)

New Look 6515 is so long out of print that it doesn't even appear on the Simplicity web site. (This link will take you Pattern Review's, um, pattern reviews for the, um, pattern.) I made view B, though my finished blouse doesn't really resemble theirs. It's a testament to how much I love this fabric that I was willing t put in so much work to get a wearable garment.

First up: blouses like these, that lap one side over the other, rarely (in my experience) instruct you to stitch the bust pieces to each other somehow. I suppose that would work out just fine if you're the busty variety, but I most certainly am not; consequently, these always gap in the front. Though I am flat-chested, I am also broad-backed, which tends to even out, usually, in terms of ease. However, the amount of ease in both the front and back was ridiculous. I kept pulling the bust pieces closer and closer together, and omitting more and more gathering (so the cup itself would be smaller), but it finally got to the point where I had no gathering left and the pieces were lapped straight over one another. It fixed the gapping, but because there was no gathering, it ceased to be an empire-waist blouse. So I grabbed a piece of elastic and hand sewed it into the white band that you see at the front.

Even after all of that, the ease was still so extreme that I look off a few inches of the back of the blouse too. Originally, this actually called for a zipper, but even now, I can still pull it on over my head with no problems. I can't imagine why you'd need a zipper with as much ease as the pattern originally called for.
So, in conclusion, this pattern didn't really work for my body type. It might work for someone who has a full bust (but not too full, or you'll spill over the top). It wasn't difficult to sew, but it did require a lot of adjustments to get it me-sized. I did see a lot of other people complaining about the same problems I did, so maybe it wasn't just me
Sorry, once again, for my wet hair.
Please admire my floormat in the background. I usually move it out of the way for pictures, but forgot to this time. It decorates my foyer year-round (I have another at the back door as well). They were gifts from my sister-in-law, who seems to live out her spooky dreams vicariously through me.

Lydia update: the day I write this marks four weeks of having this little grey terror live with us. She's put on 18 ounces (~.5 kg) in that time. The vet said she's doing well, though said with her feral start to life, she will probably have some delayed growth.

Outfit:
Skirt: Wet Seal, free at a clothing swap
Shoes: Famous Footwear, $70 (featured on Green with Envy)
Socks: from the same pack of vibrant colors featured on Green with Envy
Earrings: Hearses and coffins were charms I bought on Etsy and attached to fishhooks; skull earrings from eBay (featured on Skull Skirt)

I have a coffin necklace (made from the same charms as the earrings) that I usually wear with this, but couldn't find it this morning. I was so distraught that I forgot my awesome purple hearse barrettes too. :( Not all bad though - at work, a guy in a suit that I'd never seen before, told me he liked how my purple socks, hair, and hearses coordinated together. :)

2 comments:

What a great fabric! And the result looks really great, despite all the problems you had with the pattern. And again matching socks, oh, this is getting more and more tempting with every post you write (thank you for your answer on my last comment).And your kitten is so adorable. Sometimes I wish our cat would still be that young. Then I look at our scratched sofa and I am happy that she is not. It would look even worse today.

I am pleased with the final product; it is just regrettable that it took so much work to get it to look that way.

You're welcome for answer. Just go ahead and do it! Wear socks with heels! What's the worst that could happen?

The kitten is pretty adorable. Our Siamese cat was already six months old when we got her, so we missed most of her kittenhood (though we did get to hear in her heat, before she was fixed; a Siamese cat in heat might be the worst sound in the world). I kind of regret not having her earlier, but then Lydia yowls, wanting to be fed for the third time that day, because she's a growing girl, and I'm kind of glad it worked out the way it did.